From John B. Shea re brain death. (Letters to the Editor).

The January/February 2002 issue of Catholic Insight magazine published "Life, death and the organ donor," an article which provided evidence that the notion that a person is dead after a diagnosis of "brain death" is a fiction, not a fact. It is of interest to note that recently in Palermo, Italy, a patient "came back to life" during a wake in his home, after a hospital had declared him "brain dead." (The Wanderer, February 20, 2003).

The Linacre Centre for Health Care Ethics, a U.K. based research institute with the Catholic bishops of England and Wales as its trustees, holds that "brain death" protocols are "insufficient for establishing the death of the body. We have become increasingly convinced by evidence suggesting that integrated bodily activity can continue after 'brain death' has been diagnosed."

Robert Truog, M.D., Associate Professor of Anaesthesia at Harvard medical School, in an article entitled "Is it time to abandon brain death?" (Hastings Center Report, Jan/Feb 19/97) stated that there is evidence that many individuals who fulfilled all the tests for brain death, do not have the "permanent cessation of functioning of the entire brain."

Jennifer Kahn, contributing editor at Wired News (the website can be found at: <www.wired.com/wired/archive/11.03\Vparts.html>), quotes one cardiovascular pathologist, Charles Murry: "I don't think anybody enjoys recovering organs. You tell yourself it's for a good cause.. .but you're still butchering humans."

All of the above strongly suggests that a diagnosis of "brain death" does not morally justify the donation or removal of human organs for transplantation.

Toronto, ON